Afon Wen Line

Afon Wen to Bangor Lines

In the north, the Carnarvonshire Railway connecting Afon Wen, a junction on the Cambrian Line between Pwllheli and Porthmadog, to Bangor was opened in 1862. The line had two branches, one from Caernarfon to Llanberis and a second from Penygroes to Nantlle. The former was constructed by the Carnarvon and Llanberis Railway, while the latter was part of the narrow-gauge Nantlle Railway which ran between Caernarfon and Nantlle, and which had been incorporated into the Caernarvonshire Railway. The line was first operated by the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) and then by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS).

The Llanberis branch closed to passengers in 1930, but ran summer excursions between 1932 and 1939, and again from 1946 until 1962. As was the case with the Aberystwyth to Carmarthen railway, the line eventually fell victim to the Beeching cuts and was finally closed in December 1964. Passenger services between Bangor and Caernarfon lasted until 1970, but this section too was eventually closed in 1972. However, in 1997 a section of the original line from Caernarfon to Dinas was incorporated into the reopened narrow-gauge Welsh Highland Railway as part of the first phase of that redevelopment. The restored line over the whole distance between Caernarfon and Porthmadog was completed in 2011.